FOX 8 News received this press release from the U.S. Department of Justice Monday afternoon:
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – DR. YELENA IVANOVA, age 57, of New York, New York (Brooklyn) pleaded guilty last Friday to conspiracy to commit health care fraud. Last Thursday, October 25, METAIRIE HEALTH CENTER, INC. also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud. The plea was entered before U. S. District Court Judge Lance M. Africk, announced U. S. Attorney Jim Letten.
According to the second superseding indictment, IVANOVA participated in a criminal organization for the purpose of fraudulently billing Medicare and Medicaid. Patients went to the medical clinics for medical tests that were not performed and not medically necessary. Patients were moved between the various clinics to repeatedly perform the same unnecessary tests. According to the superseding indictment, the doctors, including IVANOVA, gave the patients prescriptions for drugs, usually narcotics, for their cooperation.
Thereafter, bills for the false and unnecessary services were submitted to Medicaid and Medicare by a third party medical claims processing and billing company that worked with other New Orleans-area clinics that have already entered guilty pleas. IVANOVA is the third of three physicians to plead guilty in the extensive health care fraud scheme.
METAIRIE HEALTH CENTER, INC. was owned and operated by Daria Litvinova.
Count 32 of the superseding indictment, carries a possible maximum sentence of ten (10) years imprisonment. Sentencing for IVANOVA has been set for January 24, 2013.
Dr. Jack Voight, Dr. Jerry Haskin, Artem Gasparyan, Anahit Petrosyan, Vadim Mysak, Daria Litvinova, Ernestine Girod, Anna Aivazova, Aram Khlgatian, Jo Ann Girod,, and the medical clinics, Health Plus Consulting, Inc., Saturn Medical Group, New Millennium Medical Group, Inc., and the biller, Solo Lucky Claims Processing, Inc., have already pleaded guilty and most are awaiting sentence.
The investigation was conducted by Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General; and the Louisiana Department of Justice, Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U. S. Attorneys Patrice Harris Sullivan, G. Dall Kammer, and Juliana Etland.
